How Matt Schaub can get his mojo back

Matt Schaub has had himself a rough couple of games, hasn’t he? In the span of eight days Schaub has gone from that quarterback that a lot of fans kind of liked, and cheered for, to being vilified — from selling jerseys to causing them to be immolated.

In other words, Matt Schaub has lost his mojo. And I know just who can help him get it back:

However I was able to reach John O’Neill, a therapist who directs addiction services for The Menninger Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine, and who has worked with athletes for 12 years, including the Houston Astros for nearly a decade.

And as bad has he has looked, O’Neill said, Schaub and his confidence are not irretrievable.

“I don’t know him, and I don’t work with him,” O’Neill told me. “I can only speak to generalities of working with athletes. And in my estimation athletes are usually able to bounce back, even from something like this. Every athlete goes through slumps.”

Schaub, after throwing his third pick. (Getty images)

How should fans feel about Schaub? Is our anger and, in some cases, hate, justifiable?

“I know that as fans it is very easy to be emotional, and reactionary and passionate,” O’Neill said. “I’m a fan, too. But as as a therapist and someone who has worked with athletes for as long as I have, I can promise you the athletes are trying to perform and have the same passion, and they’re going out there to do the very best they can. They feel it 1,000 times worse than any fan will ever feel it. The fan that is cussing up a storm is not feeling anything close to what the athlete is feeling. In talking to athletes, they hurt. People should think about that.”

How can Schaub get his mojo back?

“Without knowing what Mr. Schaub is experiencing, a performance like that, and being benched, is going to shatter your confidence to some degree,” O’Neill said. “We do know how important confidence is to success. To be successful you have to have a belief that you can do something to the best of your ability. Matt Schaub has had a history of performing at a very high level. Anytime a pro athlete doesn’t perform it’s going to be a challenge to bounce back, but depending upon the character of the athlete, and past performance, that athlete can bounce back. That’s because professional athletes are completely different breeds than the rest of us. To some extent the resilience of their confidence defines their success as pro athletes.”

Schaub, upon being benched for T.J. Yates. (Brett Coomer/Chronicle)

So how would O’Neill advise Schaub?

“I would really want to get an understanding of what’s going on in his mind. What is he telling himself? What kind of messages is he hearing? What you want to be able to do is take a look at their level and pattern and history of success and try and help them focus on that. One of the hardest things for all of us to do is not to dwell on what happened, but to live in the present. I’d tell him not to break down what went wrong in 1,000 different directions. If you do 20 great things and then two wrong things, that can overshadow all the great things. They key is helping an athlete believe they can change, and to take steps to build their confidence.

Can athletes insulate themselves from all the negative chatter?

“In today’s day and age it’s certainly harder with social media, it’s more of a challenge than it was even 10 or five years ago. But while it’s difficult to completely shut everything out, athletes surround themselves with people who have their back, and can help them block out the negative inputs.”

What happens if fans boo on Sunday when Schaub takes the field against the Rams? Will that affect Schaub?

“Most elite athletes prepare themselves for those types of responses. It’s not unexpected. I don’t put a lot of stock into an athlete being shattered by that.”